


Providence

by Just_Another_Day



Category: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Canon-Typical Violence, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-04
Updated: 2016-12-04
Packaged: 2018-09-06 11:04:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8748076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Just_Another_Day/pseuds/Just_Another_Day
Summary: It's a cruel twist that apparently Laurent's life was always meant to revolve around him, one way or another.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Just a short little snippet because apparently I just want to torture the boys with all the cliché fic tropes ever. This time it's that old 'can only see black-and-white until you meet your soulmate' chestnut.

He doesn't realise at first. The room is kept purposely dim, and the slave is all dark skin and darker hair anyway. Besides, he's not sure he'd have been able to concentrate on anything at all other than the fact that his brother's killer is before him, presented like a gift and an insult in equal measure, available for Laurent to maim and kill and finally make pay for his actions. Everything else is secondary to that.

So if Laurent catches a stray flash of gold from the cuffs as he leaves, it doesn't register.

It isn't until he enters his room and has to squint against the bombardment attacking his eyes that Laurent knows something is strange.

It takes him a moment – an unforgivably long and yet not long enough moment – of blissful incomprehension before Laurent realises it.

He's seeing in colour. 

_Colour_.

And he's only encountered one new person today.

Instead of being sick all over the stone, an impulse his rebelling body seems perilously close to giving in to, Laurent sits on his bed and numbly decides the majority of his decorations need to be thrown out.

He has no idea what the colour of the bedclothes is even called, but he does know one thing: nothing in Laurent's world has any right to look so bright when his life is so intent on falling apart around him again and again.

* * *

He doesn't know whether Damianos noticed it the first time they met and chose to say nothing, or whether the two of them were equally blind. Either way, he's clearly aware of the truth by now. He looks in awe, extending an arm towards Laurent's face as if he wants to twine his fingers in Laurent's pale hair like he's a welcome lover.

"I believe they call that yellow," he remarks. "I always preferred hair that shade for some reason, even before I really knew what it looked like. Now I know what I was missing."

"You'll keep on missing it," Laurent replies stiffly. 

"But we're –"

"It doesn't matter," Laurent cuts him off. "It means nothing. You mean nothing to me."

A lie, of course. This man has been one of the driving forces of his existence for years now. It's a cruel twist that apparently Laurent's life was always meant to revolve around him, one way or another.

When Damianos takes an opportunity to caress him with more than just his eyes, he demonstrates that he hasn't taken Laurent at his word. He doesn't seem to understand that Laurent truly isn't going to allow this knowledge to change a thing between them. Laurent takes the opportunity to provide definitive proof of how little he cares.

This is a colour he already knows the name of: blood red. 

* * *

"I forgive you," Damianos announces immediately when he sees Laurent again after being patched up. His fingers brush Laurent's arm in an overly familiar way, and Laurent is tempted to drag him right back to the cross to try to make the lesson stick this time.

I'll never forgive you, Laurent thinks in return, even if he refuses to tell him why.

Laurent admits that it must seem strange that he's so stubbornly set on hating some purportedly nameless slave, even one from an enemy land, that he's intent on fighting the will of the fates. On the other hand, it really would take an Akielon to be idiotic enough to ignore the clearly outlined reality of the situation in favour of something that should have been reserved for fairy-tales alone. Laurent has just tried to have him tortured to death. Surely only a fool could want to follow the lash of a whip with the brush of a kiss.

I will still kill you, Laurent swears silently. I won't let this stop me from avenging my brother. I won't spare a second to think about you except to be glad when you're finally gone from this world.

"You should give up hope now," Laurent suggests, perhaps the one kind thing he will ever say to this man. "It will cause you even more pain than I'm going to." 

Damianos makes no indication that he's the slightest bit swayed by this advice. He thinks he knows the outcome of this just because some quirk of nature has tried to tie them together. Well Laurent can hold stronger than something as fickle as chance.

"I'll make you hate me," Laurent promises, though if the torture didn't succeed then he hasn't the first idea of how to actually go about that.

"You're my soulmate," Damianos whispers, an absolution in advance, and Laurent hates him all the more for it.


End file.
